Family Ties
by Dragon Queen3
Summary: When a horrible disaster occurs to two people close to him, Bobby realizes that family should always be his first priority, and he comes to terms with his feelings for Alex.


A/N: Hey, it's my first LOCI fic, so if you feel the need to flame me, make it a containable one, please?

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

I can't find out anywhere if Bobby has any other relatives besides his mother and father. If anyone knows, could you tell me in a review? As for the sake of this story, Bobby has a sister and a niece. (Oh, and it will be Goren/Eames later on)

And now, on with the show!

Helene walked slowly down the sidewalk and stopped at the corner. Smoothing her chocolate brown hair, resettling her backpack, and making sure her clunky boots were on correctly, she looked both ways and crossed the street to her bus stop.

"Bye, dear! See you tonight after play practice!" Her mother's voice carried from their front porch, down the block, to Helene.

"See ya!" Helene called back, waving. Tonight they were going to see "Dance of the Vampires" starring Michael Crawford, and she couldn't wait. "Don't forget the white roses!"

"I won't sweetheart! Have a good day!" Her mother shouted, laughing. "Oh, and say 'Hi' to Zack for me!"

Zack was Helene's major crush. He had been since she first met him in ninth grade. "Right, mom!" Helene yelled. "I'll do that, right after I slip and fall in the cafeteria, and land face first into my pudding!"

Her mother laughed and waved again.

Then several things happened at once. An old black '57 Chevy came squealing around the corner down the street. As Helene turned to watch the car, she heard a loud bang and saw her mother crumple to the floor of their porch. The Chevy came to a screeching halt right next to her, and the back driver-side door flew open. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to run, but that's all they did. She was frozen in fear, literally.

A white man reached out of the door and yanked her into the car. As the door slammed shut, her limbs unfroze. Flailing about, she started screaming bloody murder. The man grabbed her by the front of her sleeveless red top and slapped her. Gasping for breath, she gingerly touched her stinging cheek. She could tell it was going to bruise. The guy in the back started chuckling. It wasn't a sound she wanted to hear. 

She had to get out of the car.

Immediately.

She slowly inched her hand to the handle to let herself out, but she saw that they were on the freeway. As she stared out the window, the guy next to her saw her hand moving to the door handle.

Without any warning, he slugged her on the right side. Her cheek was sliced open from the small ring on his hand. _Great,_ she thought,_ now both sides of my face will match._

"Hey, girlie," the guy said. "We gotta job to do, and if we don't have you, we're gonna be in some deep shit. He said he needed you alive, but he did say get you there in any condition. That means I can keep beating the shit outta you until you behave! Understand?"

Helene nodded resolutely, fingering her rapidly swelling right cheek. She studied her kidnapper. He was about 5'6", between the ages of 25-30. He was wearing a white muscle shirt and slightly baggy jeans, as well as steel-toed boots and a navy blue Yankees baseball cap. The thing that caught her attention most was the tattoo of a red dragon that started across the back of his and spiraled up his left arm, ending just below his ear. He had several piercings on his face.

Pulling out a pack of cigarettes, he lit one and took a long drag of it. The driver looked up in the mirror and said, "Hey, Mike, pass me the lighter, wouja?!"

Helene looked closer at the driver. He had a tattoo of a green dragon across his shoulders and, Helene presumed, down his arms, too. Mike passed up the lighter.

Looking out of the window, she realized they were passing into New York City and out of the surrounding suburb that she lived in. The driver tossed the lighter back, and it landed next to her right foot.

"Nice toss, dumass!" Mike said.

Having detectives in the family could come in handy sometimes. Their skills rubbed off on you sometimes. A plan started to form in Helene's head.

They were turning down a one-way street, the driver's side closest to the sidewalk. Quickly reaching down, she snatched the lighter off the floor and slipped it into her purse, which she had managed to hold on to as she was dragged into the car.

"Hey, kid, whatcha doin?" Mike said. Before he could do anything, she reached forward and grabbed the driver's seatbelt and yanked as hard as she could. The belt came up around his neck and cut off his air supply. Mike tried to grab her arms, but she twisted around and kicked him squarely in the face with the heel of her boot. He snarled and lunched again, but the second time she kicked she hit him in the groin.

Hard.

Mike uttered a few choice words and leaned forward in pain. _Serves you right, jackass!_ She thought, smiling slightly. It hurt.

The driver slammed on the breaks, and it gave Helene enough time to burst out of the door and race down the sidewalk…in the direction of her uncle's building.

The office was relatively quiet this morning. Too quiet for Detective Goren's liking. It meant that someone, somewhere, was becoming the victim of a crime, and he was just sitting at his desk, unable to help. It grated on his nerves.

Alex Eames looked up from the report she was working on to find her partner staring off into space, deep in thought. It was during these quiet, puzzling moments of his that she got the chance to actually _study_ him. He was always busy doing something, and she never had a clear view. He was a strange man, yet she found that compelling. He was a great piece of eye candy that she could stare at all day…wait a minute, where had _that_ thought come from?! This was Bobby she was thinking about! Quirky, slightly creepy _Bobby,_ the guy who liked poking and prodding dead bodies!

"Ahem…"

Alex snapped out of her mental argument to find Bobby staring right back at her. There was amusement in his eyes, and a ghost of a smile graced his lips. Oh, those lips…

"It's nice to know I have an admirer, but I never thought it could be you, Ali!" He chuckled, picking up his pen and bending over the file that sat in front of him. Alex held up the report in front of her face, hiding the blush that crept up it.

Deakins slammed the phone down in his office. Storming over to the door, he yelled, "Goren! My office. Now."

Alex and Bobby shared a glance, and Alex whistled. Man, was Deakins _pissed!_

Helene heard the pounding of feet behind her. Looking back, she saw her kidnappers chasing after her. _That's it, morons, keep following me. You're in for a surprise!_

Bobby sat down across from his superior, who currently was rubbing his brow with the tips of his fingers. Deakins sighed. "Robert," he said.

__

Oh, man. I'm in deep shit.

"I'm afraid I have some bad-" The phone rang. "Deakins," he sighed. He listened for a moment, then said, "Oh, thank God!" He listened a few moments more that said, "Right. We'll be ready."

Setting down the phone, Deakins motioned for Bobby to follow him, and he headed out the door.

Helene barreled across Central Park and up and down a few streets, easily navigating through the jungle of people and hot dog stands.

By the time she got to the building she was looking for, she was holding her side. She stopped for a breath, and looked back. Her pursuers were huffing and puffing along about a block and a half away. Smiling, she waited a moment, pretending she didn't see them. When they here ¾ of a block away, she dashed into 1 Police Plaza. They obviously didn't know this area too well.

When she burst into the lobby, Deakins grabbed her by the arm and shoved her towards her uncle. "Goren," He said. "Get your niece behind the security desk."

For once, Bobby was without words. He pulled Helene behind the desk and sat her in the chair the security guard had vacated.

"Michaels, Richards, get ready to secure the doors," Deakins said, cocking his pistol. The two officers flanked the double doors. Just when Bobby thought this scenario couldn't get any stranger, two men burst into the lobby.

Every gun was out of its holster, cocked at the two very, _very_ surprised men.

TBC…

So, R/R and tell me whatcha think!


End file.
